Don't come to Spain, tourists
Does the regional government in the Balearic Islands have an alternative plan as the Bank of Spain forecasts a drop in national GDP of 15%?
"Do not come", the regional tourism minister in the Balearic Islands, Neguerela, has said of the young Brits and Germans who travel to the islands to party hard with their friends and leave dad's money flowing through the local economy, "we do not want this type of tourists". Do not come. What kind of way is that to talk to customers who are going to help you save yourself from the worst economic crisis of the last several decades? This time, there is even an order in the region's official gazette. Punta Ballena is closed until September 15. The party is over, almost as soon as it had begun again after the months of coronavirus lockdown.
The news story is of course all over the British and German media. Magaluf has its reputation and those young customers enjoy it all the more for that. Don't go to Mallorca, lads, they said there's no partying this summer. We can be certain that the small groups of English and German friends who were planning a getaway despite everything are already looking in their WhatsApp groups for flights to Istanbul or hotels on the Greek islands. We've got to go somewhere, guys. It's not like there's going to be a lack of supply this year or a lack of Mediterranean countries that would like to receive all of their parent's money via their bars and clubs.
The government said it was time to move through the phases of the unlockdown to the "new normal", open the borders and hotels again and welcome tourists back. The Bank of Spain has forecast a fall of up to 15% of GDP and 12% of the Spanish economy is tourism, which in April went to zero. But fear of the coronavirus, via the young drunken British tourists, has won the day and that is also understandable, given the months of pandemic we have just been through and the desire not to go through them again, with the physical and economic suffering they entail, because of a big new outbreak.
We want tourists, but not those tourists. We want to open, but not open like that. We want money…but not that money. Too much risk, too much uncertainty and too much fear after all. Overly energetic young foreigners who might be spreading the deadly disease. Life challenges us with interesting situations and the Balearic Islands just made a big choice. Respecting that choice, what is the regional government's new strategy going to be to offset the fall in income, business and jobs that their decision has just created? Does that strategy exist, with its new marketing and logistic structure, or has this been an emotional reaction to some foreseeable but non-permanent disgust and fear?
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